I want to marry a handyman

As a new homeowner, I'm learning a lot about home repair and maintanance, especially since I grew up in California where we didn't pressure wash houses or dealt with fire ants.
I think I killed my garbage disponsal. It could have been some coconut shell pieces that did it in. It's not responding and pressing the emergency restart button doesn't change anything. I've lived without a garbage disponsal before. The thing that concerns me is the sink slowly drains now. And when I ran the dishwasher, there's a puddle of water at the bottom of the dishwasher that isn't draining. I know that the sink and the dishwasher use the same piping. So I need to call a plumber.
Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

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I jammed up my disposal about a month ago and learned that there is handy little tool sold at Home Depot that un-jams disposals. They only cost a few dollars. At the bottom of the disposal unit there is a little hole. This tool fits in there and you turn the disposal backwards and it un-jams it. You can find them in the same area where they sell disposals and sinks. Hope it works for you.

a few months ago i learned the same thing. but after borrowing the tool from a friendly neigbor and reaching under the sink i seen that i already had a handy tool taped to the bottom of the sink near the disposel

My wife always tells me that she is thankful for marrying a handyman, even though it is not my business. She once stated, "Forget the flowers, fix the drain!" She doesn't get any flowers, but things do get fixed around the house.

If I get the garbage disposal to work, then will everything - the sink and the dishwasher - drain?
My mom, who was looking for cleaners underneath the kitchen sink when she was visiting me months ago, noticed that I have a cheap garbage disposal. when i talked to her about my plumbing woes, she told me that my cheap disposal had killed the bucket as it had lived its full lifespan. she also told me about the "wrench." I and my friends unsuccessful have looked for this wrench. it wasn't a thorough search mind you.
Knottyhooker, where did you find your handyman? I'm going to give him a call.

Take a big wooden rod (like a plunger handle or big screwdriver), insert it into the disposer, and with 30 to 40lbs of downward force, rotate clockwise as if you are mixing a huge vat of cookie dough until disposer turns freely. If water backs up.....

all you need to do is remove the pipe that is parallel to the ground between the disposer and the sink p-trap(u-shaped pipe under sink drain) and clear the obstruction. Typically these get clogged with coffee grounds.. On one side there will be two bolts that can be removed with a standard screwdriver on the other side there will be a large nut that can be removed by hand(pvc) or with slip-joint pliers (metal). You may need to loosen the other joints to remove it.

Clean it out and re-install it. Tighten all joints and check for leaks.

I'm not a plumber but have done this about 400 times.

No need to waste your cash on such an easy repair. If you can't fix this then you're totally retarded.

"A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of himself. And he can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "It's like the president's not our boyfriend anymore," Joan McCarter, an editor at the Daily Kos website

The day before my garbage disposal stopped working, I cracked open a coconut. Some of the shell piece fell down the sink. I tried to retrieve all of them. The next day my garbage disposal sounded aweful. then it stopped making any sounds. so i pushed the re-start button underneath the disposal and checked the breakers. neither one fixed the problem.

as for the villian ... I just might be totally retarded based on your definition. my dad wasn't a handyman. growing up, i never mowed the lawn or did any minor repairs of anything in the house. i had two older brothers and two ambition handman-type younger brothers who figured things out by trial and error. I never learned to change my oil for my car because my brothers would do it for me ...

This is where the rubber meets the road. Can a woman REALLY do anything a man can do?

Turn off the breaker

Turn off the switch

Remove the rubber piece at the disposer drain orifice

Put your hand down the drain. Feel around, locate, and remove the piece of coconut shell that is lodged in the perimeter of the disposer. Remove it and think about how easy that was and how much money you just saved. Email Paige Davis(Ooooooh Baby!) and tell her she aint got shiite on you.

\"A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of himself. And he can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it."

villian, please. this isn't a question of men being able to do something a woman can't. I feel more than comfortable doing somethings that typically dainty woman won't dream of touching. and I have been quite successful. i love roughing it in the wild -- camping, hiking, rock climbing, fishing. i lived in the third-world portion Brazil for 18 month where I had extra "friends."
I know my limits though. I'll install plumbing like irrigation systems, but I won't mess around with previous installed plumbing.

I don't think you're retarded or it's a girly thing. I can fix a lot of things and garbage disposal can be a big pain in the butt which is why mine is currently disconnected!
btw way villain you need to start practicing using compliments to make some of your grays and also desaturate some of those colors. speaking of girls. ;)

Our Daughter made money in college by changing the oil and doing tune-ups on all the "guys' " cars. She can gap a spark plug and jump-start a car like nobody's business! The 'computer geeks' she hung around with could talk about mainframes and boards all day long, but couldn't even find the

rkfletch, you're wise to know your limits and stick to them. Regardless of how easy someone else thinks something is, it simply might not be your thing. And there's nothing wrong with that.

I personally wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. Don't care how "retarded" that makes me. I'm not out to prove that women can do everything men can (I'm smart enough to know they can't--and that men can't do everything women can, either. Seen any child-rearing men lately? LOL) so I'd be perfectly content letting someone else do the job.

So true, WC. Some men know how to work the Yellow Pages, and that's about it. As for training, maybe, but we also need confidence. For me the best feeling is to be successful in some little repair job, like yesterday when I replaced the flapper on my newish piece-of-junk toilet after fixing the flusher arm thingy a year or so ago. A lot of things are not that hard but they take a little patience in figuring out how something works.

I already turned off the breaker and dung around in my drain long before I ever considered blogging about this. It didn't solve my problem.
I understand his point. He thinks it's an easy fix so don't waste money on a plumber. I'm all about saving money. I'll all about doing-it-myself. imho, it's time for someone who knows what they are doing to help me out and messing with my plumbing.

Don't bother marrying a handyman. They are always so busy fixing everyone else's problems that they never fix their own! Maybe you've heard the old saying - "The cobbler's children wear no shoes"? It's true. Instead, become best friends with a woman who is married to one, and you'll never want for anything... sigh... VOE (Voice Of Experience). LOL

"Do Not tease dragons - for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

This morning knottyhooker's hubby and riverbound's husband came over and fixed my plumbing woes. my garbage disposal died - may it rest in peace. the coconute shells had nothing to do with it as I had thought. It was just its time to go.
Now I have a working sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher. life is good!
Thanks for everyone's help.